Try Retropie on a PC!

AlexMurphy

@jamesbeat What sort of spec is the PC?I haven't tried it on the PC myself. I have a dual boot with windows / Debian. Might give it a whirl.

dankcushions

@jamesbeat

I can now state unequivocally that for N64, my old PC running Retropie absolutely blows the Pi 3 out of the water - it's not even close.

yes. of course, as everyone has told you several times.

the pi3 is significantly worse than the worst full pc you can buy. you'd have to go back to the 90s to find an x86 computer that has less horsepower. your phone is probably better than it. can we please move on!

jamesbeat

@AlexMurphy said in Try Retropie on a PC!:

@jamesbeat What sort of spec is the PC?I haven't tried it on the PC myself. I have a dual boot with windows / Debian. Might give it a whirl.

Certainly nothing special - it's a Core 2 Duo 3.00 GHz 4GB RAM.
This is probably overkill, but it's what I happened to have handy and it's a small form factor PC, so it's not too obtrusive to have near the TV.

jamesbeat

@dankcushions said in Try Retropie on a PC!:

@jamesbeat

I can now state unequivocally that for N64, my old PC running Retropie absolutely blows the Pi 3 out of the water - it's not even close.

yes. of course, as everyone has told you several times.

the pi3 is significantly worse than the worst full pc you can buy. you'd have to go back to the 90s to find an x86 computer that has less horsepower. your phone is probably better than it. can we please move on!

That is obvious, and is not the point I'm trying to make.

Having made the comparison between the N64 emulator both on x86 Retropie and Pi 3 Retropie, I am stating that the Pi3 with current software is incapable of satisfactorily emulating the N64.
It might be just about tolerable for some games using custom settings, but if N64 emulation is important to you, the Pi 3 is not the answer.

AlexMurphy

@jamesbeat I think everyone with any experience of N64 on the Pi already knows this. You are posting this like it is some huge revelation.

mediamogul

First I find out that Wrestling is fake and now this. I'm starting to wonder if diet Dr. Pepper actually does taste more like regular Dr. Pepper.

AlexMurphy

@mediamogul I hate to tell you dude, but... the Easter Bunny is a lie too. It's just Santa in a costume!

mediamogul

@AlexMurphy

That's it, I'm writing my Congressman about all this! He's still real, right? Seriously, if I find out he's just two leprechauns stuffed into a cheap suit, I'm out.

Eldrethor

@AlexMurphy Lalalalala I can't hear you!

AlexMurphy

@mediamogul Nah, He's three leprechauns in an expensive suit. That you paid for.

jamesbeat

@AlexMurphy said in Try Retropie on a PC!:

@jamesbeat I think everyone with any experience of N64 on the Pi already knows this. You are posting this like it is some huge revelation.

I'm posting it for those people who are considering buying a Pi3 expecting N64 to work well.
There is a lot of misinformation on the net about this, including many of the posts in this very thread.
Someone new to Retropie and doing their research could easily be forgiven for coming to the conclusion that the Pi3 will run N64 well.
Look at the compatibility list for example.

Another reason why I posted it is for people who already have a Pi3 and are disappointed with N64 performance.

For those people I have offered a solution, which was widely panned for some inexplicable reason.

AlexMurphy

@jamesbeat Man, you seem to have a bit of a persecution complex. I appreciate there is a lot of misinformation out there regarding N64 emulation in general, and on the Pi. I do not know anyone who has bought a Pi to only run N64 and if they did I would call them an idiot. And they would deserve it.

jamesbeat

@AlexMurphy
I don't think it would he fair to call them an idiot given all the misinformation out there.
There's comptibility lists, youtube videos etc that all seem to point to N64 running well.
I think someone could do their research and still come to the wrong conclusion.

Also, that doesn't take care of the people who know that the Pi3 can't really handle N64 but don't know that there is a way to have a retropie setup that will work well.

AlexMurphy

@jamesbeat

jamesbeat

Lol fair enough I suppose.

I just posted today as an update because I hadn't actually tried N64 on a Pi3 myself until last night.

AlexMurphy

@jamesbeat Have you tried Mario Kart? It runs really well with minor audio glitches on a stock Pi 3.

mediamogul

@jamesbeat

There is a lot of misinformation on the net about this

It's a bit of a problem, sure. Most of it seems intended to drum up video views on YouTube that promise you can play all your childhood favorites for only $35. However, many people are actually content with the N64 performance on the Pi, considering that it's not perfect on any platform. Myself, I remember being very surprised to find that it ran some games like 'Doom 64' very well. While the number of playable games is definitely lower, there's still quite a few that run without much of an issue at all, like 'Mario Kart' mentioned above.

jamesbeat

Yeah, that was one of the games I tried because it's one I'm familiar with.
It seemed to run reasonably well until I tried it on the PC.
Going back to the Pi3 after that made the flaws stand out.

Mario kart was one of the better performing games out of the ones I tried though.

jamesbeat

@mediamogul said in Try Retropie on a PC!:

@jamesbeat

There is a lot of misinformation on the net about this

It's a bit of a problem, sure. Most of it seems intended to drum up video views on YouTube that promise you can play all your childhood favorites for only $35. However, many people are actually content with the performance on the Pi, considering that it's not perfect on any platform. Myself, I remember being very surprised to find that it ran some games like 'Doom 64' very well. While the number of playable games is definitely lower, there's still quite a few that run without much of an issue at all, like 'Mario Kart' mentioned above.

Yes, there appear to be two types of glitches with the N64 on the Pi.
The first type are caused by the low power of the Pi, such as slowdown, stuttering sound etc.

The other type is caused by the problems with the emulator itself, such as graphical problems, missing textures etc.

The second type are present on the PC as well, but that can only be solved with better emulators.

mediamogul

@jamesbeat

The Pi is also a bit overdue for an upgrade to the GPU. The head developer of Mupen64Plus has voiced concerns about the Pi version falling behind as a result.